


Fashionably Late

by Leni



Series: Alternate Realities (Buffyverse) [6]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Gen, Kendra lives, Season/Series 02, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-02
Updated: 2014-09-02
Packaged: 2018-02-15 21:04:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2243445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leni/pseuds/Leni
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kendra didn't come back to Sunnydale until Buffy had already left for LA.</p><p>"By the time Kendra arrived in Sunnydale, the battlefield was nothing but a demon in its stone form and traces of blood around it."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fashionably Late

**Author's Note:**

  * For [likewinning](https://archiveofourown.org/users/likewinning/gifts).



Kendra presents the blessed sword to Giles instead. 

"I tried to get into a plane first. Even bought the ticket," she confesses, guilt making her cheeks burn. Buffy's Watcher deserves to know why she has failed on her mission to help her sister Slayer. Kendra's head bows and she stares at the tips of her feet, waiting for the deserved reprimand. She lost almost forty-eight hours in her foolishness. By the time she arrived in Sunnydale, the battlefield was nothing but a demon in its stone form and traces of blood around it. "I should have snuck into the freighter from the start, as ever. They can't object about... sharp objects... if they don't see them."

The low chuckle surprises her. She would have expected the recent torture to drive the sense of humor out of him. 

"I expect not," Giles says, taking the sword with his good hand and giving it a cursory glance before setting it on top of the library desk. "I am afraid it wouldn't have done much of a difference, anyway." 

His voice sounds decades older than the man, not at all like she remembers from her last visit.

"If she'd been properly armed-" Kendra protests, but doesn't continue. They don't know that Buffy is dead. The last person to see her was Xander, and he swears that she looked fine as she headed to face her former lover.

Giles shakes his head, then sighs. "Perhaps." Then he straightens and tries a smile. "Please give Sam my thanks. It can't have been easy to get it out of the Council's storage."

A team of five Council members had arrived with the sword, each of them sworn to protect it with their lives. They had not lost it from sight until Kendra had made the same vow. Now she tries not to fidget at the casual handling it's receiving. The idea of leaving a sacred artifact so open to public scrutiny is anathema to her, but telling a Watcher how to handle a relic is even more so. 

"Nobody ever comes in here at this time of day," Giles says, catching her unease. He motions at the clock above the library doors, which marks ten minutes after six. The early hour must be the explanation for the empty halls she'd walked through on her way here. "The students have a strong sense of denial, anyway. More likely to believe there's a medieval play in the works - and to rush back out before they can be roped into it."

"Hey!" a female voice comes from the table a few yards away. "Some of us like extracurricular activities."

" _One_ of us," corrects the boy beside her, yawning.

Kendra turns to glare at the pair. She thought she'd made herself clear when she asked Buffy's friends to stay aside while she talked with Giles, but apparently neither Willow nor Xander have any respect for the confidentiality between a Slayer and a Watcher.

What _are_ they doing here at all? 

Willow still wears a bandage, and her movements are stiff with pain when she thinks nobody is looking. Xander looks exhausted, haunted by whatever he's witnessed in the last few days. They should be recovering from their injuries, and in a perfect world they'd retreat into the safety of their homes and leave the burden of the battle to those raised to be warriors.

Buffy may have not minded her friends' presence, but Buffy has yet to show up.

Kendra would have reproached them, but Giles' subtle head shake stops her. 

Perhaps... Perhaps they are friends of his as well.

The notion strikes her as strange, having never seen Zabuto in a social setting, never mind around meddling teenagers. Making an effort not to show her disapproval, Kendra takes in the information and adds it to the bizarreness of Sunnydale.

It's not as if anything can shock her as much as the realization that her fellow Slayer was in love with a vampire.

Though finding out that Angel had betrayed that love and Buffy still hadn't killed him has come close.

(The breaking of a curse doesn't change the facts, in her opinion.)

Kendra still has to work out whose actions have disappointed her the most.

The thought reminds her that her own actions now must be beyond reproach. The Council cannot be troubled by the inefficiency of both their Slayers. "What is the next step?" 

The question is meant for Giles, as is proper, but Willow is the one to answer, "We find Buffy, of course!"

Xander doesn't look very enthusiastic at the idea, but he nods along. 

Giles fidgets. "She may not want to be found," he says, and when all of them fix on him for an explanation, he continues haltingly, "Buffy rang me up after midnight last night. Left a message. It seems she's fallen out with her mum, I'm not sure of the details." He makes to pass a hand through his hair, but winces when his right hand protests the motion. "She says - well, she says she's leaving town. Has left, actually."

From the corner of her eye, Kendra sees Willow shake her head even as she sinks into her seat. Conversely, Xander shoots to his feet and his voice rises along, "She can't!"

Willow puts her hand around his wrist, tugging him back down. "At least she's alive," she whispers, then adds, "She'll come back."

"Will Angel come back as well?" Kendra asks, because somebody needs to keep their focus. These people might be mourning their friend's absence, but she needs to make sure that the other Slayer hasn't left an enemy loose.

Giles shakes his head. "She mentioned he wouldn't be a problem anymore."

"Maybe..." Willow begins, and the tone is unexpectedly hopeful.

"I don't think so," Giles says. "She sounded... bad. Pretty wretched, actually. Sorry, Willow."

The redhead's face crumples. "I don't know why the spell didn't work." With her free hand, she swipes at her cheek. "Just a little more time and-"

"Doesn't matter anymore," Xander interrupts. "The important thing is, how do we bring her back?".

As the three of them exchange helpless looks, Kendra can't help but wonder why they would _want_ her back. 

Slayers don't hesitate to eliminate the enemy, not even when it wears a beloved face.

(Slayers don't break into soft smiles and kiss the face of a demon.)

Slayers don't drag civilians into the battle against evil.

(Slayers don't harm a human to force their cooperation to rescue a vampire.)

Slayers don't abandon the place that needs her.

(Slayers don't risk their lives for the sake of a single person.)

But Buffy has never been a proper Slayer, so it makes sense that her friends wouldn't know how a Slayer should behave. They also seem to cling to the delusion that a Slayer could still live a normal life. Be a normal school girl. Daughter. Girlfriend.

When Kendra had last been here, Buffy had been intent on balancing her Calling with the life she wanted to lead. It seemed like she has even managed it for a few months.

So what does one do when a whole half of their self was ripped away?

Could what remained still function?

If Buffy didn't believe herself capable of continuing acting as the Slayer, if she thought she'd risk the lives of others in her weakness, Kendra can understand her choice. 

A little.

 _That_ shocks her.

Welcome to the bizarre, she thinks as she turns to Giles, her decision made. "I will stay." He and her Watcher can handle the details: where she will stay, the continuance of her studies, what new weapons she should practice with, and when Zabuto will come to check on her progress. "You can look for Buffy," she tells the teenagers, hoping they'll take the bait and focus their energy on the search instead of trying to help her, "and I will do her work, yes? This is a hellmouth; it needs a Slayer."

Giles is the first to recover. "That is... very kind of you, Kendra. Are you sure?"

She nods. "Just tell me what to do, sir."

"Ah... right."

His smile looks a little pained.

Kendra doesn't understand why.

 

The End  
02/09/14

**Author's Note:**

> Written for LikeWinning at Comment Fic.  
>  **Prompt:** [ Kendra didn't come back to Sunnydale until Buffy had already left for LA.](http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/553737.html?thread=78058761#t78058761)


End file.
